Is it too much to ask the NY Times food section, in general, and Frank Prial, specifically, to know the difference between the French words "clos" and "cros"? Apparently so, even if the subject is the vineyard owner and winemaker of one of the most famous vineyards in all of Burgundy.

This week Henri Jayer, a Giant in the world of Burgundy, passed away and Mr Prial published an appropriate sentimental obituary of a man who helped revolutionize a region, and who's wines were praised world-wide. Unfortunately, in describing his most famous wine, the Vosne Romanee 1er Cru "Cros Parantoux", he called it a "clos". Egad! So much for notariety! A sloppy and embarrassing error.

2003 Bourgogne Epineuil, "Cote de Grisey", Dom. de l'Abbaye du Petit Quincy
There comes a time when a Burgundy lover can no longer avoid his favorite regoin and must choose a bottle even from the most mundane of retailers, the big-box. And so, I broke down and bought a few different bottles at the local Carrefour (the French Wal-Mart) to see what I could find in terms of quality. I bought a Bourgogne rouge, a Cote de Nuits villages, and a Volnay 1er cru. A small sampling and the other night I opened this unassuming domaine bottled Bourgogne (I may be hooked but I'm not crazy!). For an '03 the color was all wrong. Orange-brown instead of purple. Something went wrong with this wine, either too much oxygen during vinification or bad cellar conditions since it's bottling. In the nose, very little juicy fruit BUT, at least it showed typical Burgundian flavors of cinamon, leather, orange, and dried leaves.... It kind of smelled like it looked. Brown. Nevertheless, the aromas it did have were enjoyable "Burgundian" and made me smile (I'm easy). In the mouth, it was dry, a bit bitter and herbaceous for the vintage. Finished with strawberry, and strawberry leaves. Fell apart after a couple of hours into a sour mess.

This wine was damaged, either by poor (careless) vinification or by its storage conditions. That being said, it did provide pleasure for about 30 min, not terrible for 7 euros. Hey, I'm a "glass is half full" kind a guy. On to bigger and better stuff!

2002 "Valtuille", Bierzo D.O. Bodegas Castro Ventosa . Here is one of the upper price-point wines from the producer of El Castro del Valtuille , and it comes from 100 year old vines. "Cepas Centenarias."

In the nose, at first, it's very oaky and only after some time in the glass can I coax out iodine and graphite. In fact it was almost like a medoc in the nose. Cigar box and flint. In the mouth this wine is more reticent and shows less juicy fruit than the "El Castro" (vintage difference, or 100 year old vines?) and instead shows more woody and mineral character. Lip smacking acidity and soft tannins with a moderatetly long finish. Why so much oak though? I would have preferred less oak and more of the intrinsic grape qualities. More research is necessary because these wines continue to intrigue me for their minerality, acidity and brambly fruit. 33 euro locally and I'm sure much more in the US, which lowers its attractiveness a bit.

2003 El Castro de Valtuille, Bierzo, D.O. Bierzo . Situated in the North-west corner of Spain (in the western-most part of Castilla y Leon) , this small viticultural region produces Spain's answer to red Burgundy. Here, instead of pinot noir, they work with the indigenous Mencia, a grape variety that makes exuberant reds with a nice dose of flint on the nose and palate. This monocepage wine is starting to get noticed, as evidenced last May in the NYTimes food section:

"EVERY once in a while an unfamiliar wine region rises and demands attention. Suddenly, that region and its wines begin to wallpaper your mind like a new hit tune, so that you can't get them out of your head. Most recently, I've been hearing the song of the red wines of Bierzo." (A.A., NYTimes)

My first taste of Bierzo was last year last year at a local tasting given by local importer La Buena Vida , where I met the winemaker of this wine, Raul Perez. While going through his different bottlings, Mr Perez was very excited to show me how his wines reflected each of their "terroirs". This wine, his entry level wine, comes from vines plannted in sandy soils, while his other wines have different degrees of schist and clay. Of course, this ability to reflect the attributes of each individual vineyard reminds one of what is seen up and down the Cote d'Or. I gather from our discussion that the mindset is the same as well.

Onto the wine! Immediately after opening it's shy and I was a bit concerned with some acetone and volatile acidity, but time in the glass proved to be the key here. Eventually, cinamon, grafite, and rose aromas intice you to come back for more. Floral and high toned, has good structure, and finishes with that wonderful blackberry and slate/flint characteristic I found in the "Petalos del Bierzo" from Descendientes de J. Palacios (a wine I previously tasted in an earlier newsletter). I love the snappy acidity that balances out the ripe, brambly fruit flavors. At 12 Euros, this is a great bargain and deserves to be snapped up by the case.

2002 Vacqueyras, "Montirius" Straying from the bought local theme but sticking with the Rhone, this wine was a very pleasant surprise. A wine made under the direction of bio-dynamic farming practices by Christine and Eric Saurel, this Vacqueyras had a deep reddish brown robe with concentrated strawberry (leaves?) and rhubarb aromas. A precise and laser straight wine with mellow but tactile tannis and great fruit intensity. Finishes with bright cherry, mint, and pepper. Great thirst quenching acidity. We had it with roast pork but it cried out for cheese! Medium bodied red that is drinking superbly today and is a beautiful and harmonius blend of syrah and grenache. I could drink this wine ALL day, and Valerie agreed. A wonderful "gift" from my cousin and retails for around 14 euros loacally (John you are free to enjoy something of mine at the same value) . Ask your favorite wine merchant to find this one for you.

Here's a new (March '06) piece of legislature from the Mass Alcoholic Beverage control Commission that I suspect not too many people know about, but should. Essentailly, it allows all those people who order a bottle of wine at a restaunt, but do not finish it, to bring the remainer home with them. What and idea! I believe that some restaurant owners quietly let some patrons out of the building with an unfinished bottle but the practice was not widespread, and it made them a bit uncomfortable. Now it's legal! Bravo Mass legislature for removing another impediment to enjoying wine on a night out!

Read for yourself...


New Mass Legislation

"Les Calcinaires", vin de pays (Roussillon), 2003, Domaine Gauby.

Another in the series purchased from the Kempen wijnhuis. Bought blind, based on the recommendation from the wine merchant. According to Andrew Jefford in 'The New France': "The burly and exuberant Gerard Gauby's 32-ha biodynamic estate based at Calce is not only one of the best estate in Roussillon, but also one of the finest domains in Southern France. Gauby ensures very low yields by hard pruning and green harvesting. He also sorts is precious harvest grape by grape... Gauby has eased back slightly on the power of his extraction over the last few vintages, providing wines of greater sumptuousness and less brute force."

Well, well, well. High praise indeed. I found other references of the domaine (the name of which I just recently learned) on Jancis Robinson's web site, 1855.com, and the wine doctor to name a few. My local wine merchant herself coudn't say enough about the attention to detail and quality this domaine, and these wine makers, put into their wines. She only had a white on hand but from the looks of those available from 1855.com, I should try to find the reds as well.

As for the wine, it's a unique blend of 50% muscat, 30% chardonnay, and 20% macabeo. It's very assertive in the nose with lime, minerals, lychee, and white chocolate. In the mouth it's fat, with that prickly muscat aspect framing its large frame. It touches all parys of the palate. A broad wine, dry, with lively acidity to keep it fresh, and it finishes with licorice and pepper spice. It's a big and off-beat wine that sells for 12.95 euro.

While tasting I wondered what I would serve it with and moules marinees got stuck in my mind for some reason. I think it would go great with that, in it's classic shallot and white wine version. (Or maybe I've seen too many ads for moules frites around here!) Will everyone like it? Definitly not, but I think it's interesting enough to try and share with some adventurous wine lovers.

2004 Domaine La Remejeanne, Cote du Rhone, "Les Arbousiers". I had been waiting to open this bottle...all of 7 days...because the producer had come so highly recommended by both David Raines in Boston (USA), and by Lutgard Pigmans of the more local Kempische Wijnhuis. A blend of Grenache, Syrah, and Carignan. Rised in stainless steel. Red-purple hue and saturated robe. Very shy at first, then showing a precise core of sweet blueberries, framed with pepper and spice. Great concentration, without being over-extracted. Sweet. Later, the sweet core is still there but the rest has now an added dimension of citrus rind and mint. Cool calm and precise, with a nice ripe aftertaste. A beautiful wine, all for.......9.20 euro!!! I'm going back for 2 cases!

I love tasting wines but I especially love tasting wines with my wife. She claims that she has no palate but I beg to differ. I usually have a glass waiting for her when she comes home from work, and I love watching her take that first sip. Not because she looks so French doing so, but because I can tell in that first second after she tastes if it's just wine or if it's REALLY good. Valou retains no memory of labels so even if we had had it before she wouldn't be swayed by the bottle itself. On this day, the drill was no different. I had already started in on my glass by the time she arrived home, and was very much enjoying what I was drinking. She started talking about her day, I handed her a glass and then she took a sip. A second later, she paused, stopped her train of thought, and looked at the bottle. "This is GOOD," she said. I smiled. It is good and I recommend you search out this bottle at your favorite wine shop.

Domaine Le Roc des Anges, cuvee "Segna de Cor", 2004. (Cotes du Roussillon villages). From a superstar producer of Carignan , it looks like ink in the glass, and it tastes like it too. An interesting offering (sexy packaging) from my favorite Kempische Wijnhuis, but mostly too extracted for my taste. A blend of 50% Grenache, 30% Carignan and 20% Syrah, with 14.5% alcohol. Starts volatile and oaky, but then shows its stuffing in a very modern style. White pepper, caramel, tar, candied blackberries, and oak. Port-like. Lots going on here. At times overdone and confused but it is young. In the end we keeping pouring more in our glasses, (is it the alcohol?), so there's something we like about it, and for 10 euros we shouldn't quibble too much. It's not for people looking for finesse, but how often do you associate Roussillon with finesse? (Postsript: the next day it was a monolihic and volatile. Not my style.)

The Guide Michelin has been around for over a century, and its famous three star rating system for restaurants has been copied over and over again. One star means "A very good restaurant in its category", two stars means "Excellent cooking, worth a detour", and three stars proclaim "Exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey." I think wine stores fit very nicely in this hierarchy as well, and I recently discovered one that is worth a special journey. Yes! A three star wine store.

The Kempisch Wijnhuis, in Turnhout, Belgium and just the kind of store that is worthy of a special journey. Owned and run by the charming Lutgard Pigmans, she has compiled a delicious selection of wines from around Europe but with a special affinity for the wines of the Rhone valley and the South of France. In the coming weeks I will be posting on some ofthe treasures she imports into Belgium but for now let's focus on her service.

I discovered the store last year at a local wine fair and it was her pouring of the superb Rhones from Domaine Remejeanne Rhones that got my attention. (Remejeanne was first introduced to me by David Raines of Gordon's Wines in Waltham, MA, USA. Another store worthy of three toques). For some reason, anyway, it took me several months to drive the 20 km up to the store from my home.

One Spring day I did make the drive and I took my friend Stephane who was visiting from Paris. The store lies at the end of a dirt road and shares space with the owners home residence. When you ring the door bell, you will be greeted by, I presume, Lutgard's mother, a shy but welcoming Flemmish women who speaks only that. She invites you in, takes you around the corner, down a short hallway to a tiny room that makes up the store. I swear the strore can't be any larger than 300 sq feet, but in this space lie beautiful wines that a Rhone and langudoc lover would drool over.

Our quick drive up the store (or so we told our wives) ended up being 2.5 hour excursion. Stephane and I got lost going over her selection, discussing her favorites and listening to the stories she had to tell about each of her pet vignerons. It actually felt more like speakinig to the vigneron than to a merchant. We didn't simply shop for wine, but lived the entire experience with a merchant who is extremely passionate about her wines. In the end we picked up a few cases , and for our trouble she added a bottle of Bandol as a gift. It was so satisfying, and the wines we drunk were as well.

Fast forward a few months to this week when Stephane made another trip up from Paris. Ostensibly to visit friends in Belgium, but I suspect the alterior motive was to pay another visit to the Kempische Wijnhuis. As Monday was sandwiched between Sunday and a State holiday, I called ahead to see if they would be open. At first, she apologetically explained that they were only open Thurs-Sat (oh, the life!), but once she remembered who I was (bad French accent gave me away), she offered to open the store for us. Talk about service!!

As with previous visit, a short trip to the wine shop extended well beyond what a level-headed person could bare, and we again left with a few cases PLUS a bottle as a gift for us stopping by!

Any wine shop can have a stellar selection, but to combine that with great prices and great service, now you are talking about a rare beast. So as for the details of her selection, click on her web site and scan through the catalogue, I know it will impress you (even if you can't read Dutch). As for what's in the bottle, stay tuned as I plan to post my tasting notes from the small sampling I bought.

This is a wonderful shop with an enthusiastic host who loves her work, and one that more wine amateurs should know about. As evidenced by my Parisian friend Stephane, it is a shop worth a "special journey".

2001 Chateau Ferrand-Lartigue

This was the second wine we shared last night and it too was delicious. This St. Emilion Grand-Cru was made by Vincent Rapin (as consultant wine maker), the quality crazy owner of the up and coming Domaine de Valmengaux (AOC Bordeaux). I met Vincent last summer at the vineyard site of Dom. Valmengaux, which is situated up in the hlls above Fronsac. The thing that impressed me the most with Vincent was that right after we shook hands he took me to the vineyard, not to the cellar. Normally, when I meet wine-makers they take me straight to the chais and never to the vineyard. Not Vincent. He instead took me on a one hour tour of his 3 hectare vineyard, showing me the health of his soil and of his vines. He passion was infectious, and what I hope you take away from this aside is that the passion with which he runs his own Domaine is replicated in his consulting job for Chateaux Ferrand-Lartigue. In the end, for Vincent, most of what makes the wine comes from the vineyard.

For us, on this night, this wine was a big hit (especially for my Bordeaux-loving wife Valerie...oh, well, she's almost perfect). Its color was deep garnet with a slight hint of orange at the rim. In the nose is was big with blackberries, tar, eucalyptus, and mint. In the mouth, it was rich with and tannic, with a mouth watering acidity and a pleasing cherry finish. Seems to be dominated by Merlot but I actually do not have the blend composition of this wine. To learn more check out the links below.


Chateau Ferrand-Lartigue
Domaine Valmangaux
Gite de Domaine Valmangaux

2004 Chassagne-Montrachet

Last night I shared this, and the next wine, with my parents who are visiting from the USA. This white burg from Alex Gambal, was purchased directly from the winery last fall at a cost near 22 euros. The Proprietor, Mr. Gambal, is an American, part Bostonian part Washingtonian, who uprooted his family to work for the exporter Becky Wasserman in the heart of Burgundy. He loved the experience so that he opened his own negotiant house in the mid-90's. Now for the wine...

Pale straw with hue of green. In the nose, there are nuts, citrus, crushed stone, and vanilla. In the mouth it's medium bodied and ripe with a lovely frame of acidity that carries lengthens the finish. Clove, butterscotch, cirtus, and white flowers dominate the flavor profile. Overall it is fresh and ripe white Burg with a very likeable acidity that almost gives it some of that "tension" that I love in Burgundy. (postscript: hours later I noticed an oxidized note in the nose...a fault or stylistic difference??)

Dehlinger vertical
On July 9, in Topsfield, MA(USA) I went over to a good
friend's for a pinot noir dinner. The theme, a vertical tasting of the
"estate" pinot noir from Dehlinger winery (Russian River, Sonoma, CA, USA). Prices range near $30 a
bottle, a steal for this quality level!Our gracious host poured 1996, '98, 2000, and '02 "Estate"
pinot noir. What luck to be a guest! None of the wines were under 14% alcohol but, surprisingly,
none of them showed it. Of the three youngest the '2002 was bursting with red fruit and spice and still very
young. The 00 was ripe, vigorous and ready to drink. Plummy and delicious! Of the 2 oldest, the the '98 was sweet
and plummy with licorice and cherry on the finish. Mature. The '96 was begining to fade in the beautiful way only pinot
noir can. I think the '00 was everyones favorite but the '98 came in a close second.

Just for fun, our gracious host bookended these fine wines with a lovely '98 Chassagne-Montrachet, "Grandes
Ruchotttes" (F&L Pillot), and a 98 Volnay "Les Santenots" from V. Girardin. The Ruchottes was, as always for me, the
epitome of Chassagne, rich yet full of tension. The Volnay, from a difficult vintage, still hadn't shed it's tannins. Very
different from the Dehlingers, with a beautiful Burgundian nose. Still, I found it oaky, volatile and
the finish was a bit short. Will it come around? Don't know but I'd love to try another! Thank you Tony and Celia!

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